Russian Poetry and Landscape

I read a lot of Czech and Slovak poetry when I was posted to Prague, but I never really explored the Russian poets, perhaps because I have no knowledge of the Russian language. My work in London (after Czechoslovakia) took me later on official cultural relations visits to Moscow, Tbilisi and Kiev (Ukraine in bleak mid-winter), so I was able to develop some conception of the varying landscapes and the impact of the changing seasons in the (then) USSR.

Recently I have been revisiting two old anthologies of Russian poetry in English translation:

A Book of Russian Verse, edited by C.M. Bowra, 1943

Post-War Russian Poetry, edited by Daniel Weissbort, 1974

In his introduction, Maurice Bowra  (later Sir Maurice Bowra, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford) writes evocatively about the influence of the Russian landscape:

Quite a contrast with my previous posting on the 'Great Field' of Poundbury in Dorset!

See also, MARINA TSVETAEVA, from “Poems to Czechoslovakia”

Russian Bells

Georgia - Aramaic rendition of the Our Father


The BBC TV Series, Russia with Simon Reeve, offered insights into the landscape and current conditions in the countryside of different regions.